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170 photographs (one detached and one missing), two to a page, plus one Christmas card, comprise this remarkable album. The album features unusual dimensions, measuring 11 3/4" x 4 9/16", landscape orientation, 42 leaves/84 pages, black paper, white-ink captions. The scene is California when it was still largely agricultural, and hardly urbanized. Many images are arresting: a horse-drawn carriage delivering a load of orange crates; landscapes of the Santa Lucia Range; Bishop s Peak, a craggy summit above San Luis Obispo. (S.L.O. seems to have been the main haunt of the photographer), surveyors with their equipment, etc. Numerous photos show our explorers riding bicycles, and some early automobiles are shown. We get one action shot of the Shoreline Limited train, northbound. The centerpiece of the album was the California Polytechnic School - usually referred to as C.P.S. - and schoolmates are often shown in group pictures, or individually in athletic or leisure pursuits. Lots of camping, hunting and fishing trips are pictured. The greenhouse, the dairy, the powerhouse are all pictured, as is the dance around the Maypole in 1913. During the school pageant, many students dressed as Spanish and Indian dancers. Two photos depict local native Americans living in Toro Creek Canyon. Several Missions are pictured: Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo de Toloso, San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano. The suede binding on the front cover also has an unidentified mission as decoration. One striking image from 1912 depicts Madam Tingley s Theological [sic] Institute on Point Loma, near San Diego, which had been founded in 1900. Two images of a famous hotel in Santa Barbara are included, some years after its 1903 construction: first it was called the Potter Hotel, and the name was changed to the Ambassador, shortly before it burned down in 1921. We get one image of sleepy Main Street of Tijuana, Mexico, and two of San Diego Bay - one with a freighter ship, the other with a cruiser. The album itself has seen better days. The red suede is peeling off both covers, and most pages are chipped at the outside corners. Even so, the beauty of the images make this a special collection. The pictures here are exceptionally pretty - maybe it was the camera, or the film used, or maybe the photographers really knew what they were doing. It s hard to describe the nostalgia successfully achieved when leafing through these pages and the wistfulness evoked for a time when the landscape was more pristine.
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